What must be done on October 14, 2017


WHAT ARE VOTERS IN NEW ORLEANS SUPPOSED TO DO ON OCTOBER 14?

Vote, of course.  Nevertheless, voting intelligently is no easy matter.  We have ideological convictions of some kind, and we want to support candidates who share our prejudices.  The candidates for mayor and city council seats express ideas about their intentions and priorities at forums.  What the candidates for State Treasurer,  Orleans Parish Coroner, and two judgeships --- Court of Appeal, 4th Circuit, 1st District, Division B and Civil District Court-- truly think is voiced only on their websites, in the campaign literature they and their supports distribute.  Although the Coroner need only have skill in forensic medicine and good vision and the Treasurer should assume financial policy is a sacred trust, judges must employ complex legal reasoning to make decisions.  It might be argued that there is less gravity in the duties assigned to a treasure or a coroner than in the duties we entrust to judges.  If we are to make good decisions in electing  candidates for judgeships, it would be helpful to have forums at which they reveal in greater depth what they believe a theory of justice to be and how they employ belief in rendering decisions.  And those forums ought not take the form of donation parties!  Perhaps in some future, voters will demand more accountability of those who wish to be guardians of justice.  I suspect a significant number of voters are mesmerized by subjective endorsements, some of which can actually be "purchased" by candidates.  When I see an endorsement named AGNOR, (does an elephant wearing a fleur-de-lis = A?),  I smell a rat named presumption of voter ignorance.



Six items on the October 14 ballot should be scrutinized before we vote "Yes" or "No."  CA No. 1 (Act 428 SB140) would exempt property tax for construction sites; CA No. 2 (Act 427 HB145) would provide homestead exemption for unmarried surviving spouses of people who have rendered noble public service; CA No. 3 (Act 429 HB 354) would dedicate projected taxes to a construction subfund for transportation infrastructure.  Read the texts for these items carefully.  Read even more carefully the items that ask us to approve or to reject the renewal of millage for PW School Board Propositions A, B, and C-----purchase of textbooks and other supplies; sponsoring programs for improving discipline and decreasing dropouts; funding for salaries, fringe benefits, and productivity incentives for employees.  We need to ask pointed question about these propositions or proposals at Orleans Parish School Board forums that are scheduled during the month of September.  Given the "confederated" rather than "unified" system of education in New Orleans, we need to be vigilant about hidden loopholes.



We harm ourselves if we fail to inform ourselves about the less-than-obvious stakes in the October 14 election.  Vote, of course, but try to do so as intelligently as is possible.  We may not be able to cleanse the new swamp of political ignorance in national affairs for some years, but we are capable of not replicating that swamp in New Orleans when we exercise our civic obligations



Jerry W. Ward, Jr.                            September 1, 2017

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